‘Mermaid,’ cooks cool with their jobs at the L.A. County Fair

POMONA >> A mermaid inside a water tank and a griller outside in the sun would appear to have opposite experiences at the L.A. County Fair.

On Sunday, in the 90-degree heat that felt north of 100 degrees in the sun, Jerald Smith and Ernesto Ojeda, both of San Diego, flipped burgers or chicken in black shirts while wearing hats to stop the sweat coming down their foreheads.

Meanwhile, Melissa Dawn of Orlando, Fla., was to swim for hundreds in six shows wearing a 65-pound mermaid tail in a $50,000 tank of cold water that was inside an air-conditioned building.

As expected, the mermaid and the grillers each maintain their job is difficult.

Smith, 52, is in charge of the grilled cooks at the Chicken Charlie’s stand next to the grandstand.

“I put in 8- to 12-hour days,” he said.

He said the grill gets up to 400 degrees and the weather would “max out” at 100 degrees, so “that’s about 500 degrees. At least, it feels that way.”

He estimates he gulps down five gallons of water a day besides wearing sunscreen to ward off the sun.

Ojeda, 19, grills meats for Chicken Charlie’s from popular items like burgers for a $9.95 Krispy Kreme cheeseburger or $9.95 chicken kabobs.

“I think my job would be harder than a mermaid in a pool,” Ojeda said. “She doesn’t have to sweat. Right here you have to move around. A mermaid in a pool is right there, floating around. It’s just a different thing.”

Dawn, 32,said her job is much more than swimming before hundreds or even thousands of people under the banner of her own business, Mermaid Melissa LLC, which has multiple performers and crew members.

“Everyone only sees the final product of me swimming around,” she said.

Some women might think, ‘That’s amazing. I wish I could do that for a living. She’s got it made,” Dawn said. “Now, I obviously love it. But running a mermaid business is not easy. It’s hard enough for a normal business. Try having a niche where there’s not a niche and you create your own job as a mermaid. It’s very physically demanding.”

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She’s also on the opposite end of the spectrum in terms of the heat.

“The AC unit is awesome for everybody but the mermaid,” she said. “The difference is the water and AC makes you freezing.”

Dawn said she averages 8 hours a day putting together the fair performances.

“Physically, I’m ready for this,” she said. “Mentally it’s a lot to go from one show to the next. In front of the kids and the audience, I have to give 150 percent. In the back, before the show, ... I zone out and calm down. By the end of the night, your eyes are bloodshot. Let alone my heavy tail is 65 pounds.”

The grillers and the mermaid wouldn’t change places, however.

“I like it,” Ojeda said. “I like seeing people smile when I give them food.”

Dawn loves her job too.

“I look at the mermaid thing as a total gift for me,” she said.

About the Author

Wes covers culture and entertainment for the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin, The Sun and the Redlands Daily Facts. Reach the author at wes.woods@langnews.com
or follow Wes on Twitter: @JournoWes.